Off-label

Upcoming event on therapeutic and non-therapeutic uses of non-invasive neuromodulation devices

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095_Burke Rehabilitation.

Heads-up: The Insti­tute of Med­i­cine (IOM), a branch of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences, is putting togeth­er a for­ward-look­ing work­shop on Non-Inva­sive Neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion of the Cen­tral Ner­vous Sys­tem. March 2–3rd, 2015, in Wash­ing­ton, DC.

Descrip­tion: Based on advances in biotech­nol­o­gy and neu­ro­science, neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion devices are poised to gain clin­i­cal impor­tance in the com­ing years and to be of increas­ing inter­est to patients, health care providers and pay­ers, [Read more…] about Upcom­ing event on ther­a­peu­tic and non-ther­a­peu­tic uses of non-inva­sive neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion devices

Monitoring stress-related use of antipsychotic drugs in the military

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fog brainWar on Drugs (OpEd at the NYT):

“LAST year, more active-duty sol­diers com­mit­ted sui­cide than died in bat­tle… Worse, accord­ing to data not report­ed on until now, the mil­i­tary evi­dent­ly respond­ed to stress that afflicts sol­diers in Iraq and Afghanistan pri­mar­i­ly by drug­ging sol­diers on the front lines…The trou­ble is that we have no idea whether it’s effec­tive — or safe — to use antipsy­chot­ic drugs on a con­tin­u­ing basis to treat war-relat­ed stress or to numb or sedate those affect­ed by it…The med­ical, mil­i­tary and civil­ian pop­u­la­tion share an inter­est in know­ing about patient-lev­el pre­scrip­tion trends, med­ical indi­ca­tions for use, effec­tive­ness of con­ven­tion­al as well as off-label treat­ments, and lon­gi­tu­di­nal fol­low-up of those sol­diers receiv­ing psy­chotrop­ic drugs.”

Relat­ed arti­cle: Mis­use & Abuse of ADHD Meds among col­lege students

Neurologists prescribing cognitive enhancement drugs to healthy kids and adults?

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Human-brain-pillsAccord­ing to a new posi­tion state­ment by the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Neu­rol­o­gy (AAN), pre­scrib­ing cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, “atten­tion-boost­ing,” drugs to healthy chil­dren is mis­guid­ed and not jus­ti­fi­able. Inter­est­ing­ly, a 2009 posi­tion state­ment by AAN still in force today stat­ed that doing so with adult “patients” is both legal and eth­i­cal (includ­ing the remark that “Neu­rol­o­gists who pre­scribe med­ica­tions for the off-label use of neu­roen­hance­ment are act­ing law­ful­ly,” with­out real­ly chal­leng­ing whether the drugs have been proven to be a) effec­tive and b) safe in that con­text). [Read more…] about Neu­rol­o­gists pre­scrib­ing cog­ni­tive enhance­ment drugs to healthy kids and adults?

The Business and Ethics of the Brain Fitness Boom — Part 1: The Business

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The recent dis­cov­ery that expe­ri­ence can change brain struc­ture and func­tion at any age has sparked numer­ous health, edu­ca­tion, and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty appli­ca­tions whose val­ue and lim­i­ta­tions we are only start­ing to grasp.

Brain fit­ness has quick­ly become a main­stream aspi­ra­tion among baby boomers and elders, pri­mar­i­ly in North Amer­i­ca. It has fueled a grow­ing inter­est in brain fit­ness class­es, brain fit­ness cen­ters, and brain fit­ness pro­grams, along with atten­dant oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges. An increas­ing num­ber of adults want use­ful tools to pro­tect cog­ni­tive health and performance—not nec­es­sar­i­ly to reverse aging—and what they are find­ing is an expand­ing and noisy mar­ket­place where they (and also pro­fes­sion­als) need to care­ful­ly eval­u­ate their own needs and the avail­able options (Fer­nan­dez and Gold­berg, 2009). [Read more…] about The Busi­ness and Ethics of the Brain Fit­ness Boom — Part 1: The Business